Thank you, burst of color

This is the time of year when on a day off from the store, I walk out the side door of the Little Bitty, take a left, and soak it all in. Spring is settling into the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. I appreciate every little burst of color. My dear wife Karen predicts that…

I love some more Richard Linklater coming-of-age brilliance!!

The buzzed kids in Dazed in Confused did end up going to college. Metaphorically, in the mind of terrific writer and director Richard Linklater, it turns out. And so a quick 23 years after that breakthrough coming-of-age film that drew up the extremely realistic final May 1976 high school days of a group of Texas…

The long and the short of it

I’m not saying I waited too long for the first mow of spring 2016 in the yard of the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood but … The back before I took out the red pusher mid-week was, shall I say, a bit tangled. The front wasn’t as bad, but it’s all…

A cool wind and a warm sun greet our golf season

A day off from the store and friends a stretch of warm spring Syracuse weather added up to the opening of golf season 2016 for KP, Tater and I. Tater chose Camillus Country Club, a public-private hybrid built high on a hill on the west side of Onondaga County. The sun shined brightly again for…

Trying to keep the neighborhood base solid

I noticed a couple of big rocks hanging out on the empty lot separating the Little Bitty and our neighbor’s brick house the other day, and got hit by one of my little ideas. Those are the perfect size, I thought, to place in the holes the Eastwood skunk digs under our Syracuse city fence…

Springing a return to Thornden Park

My four-season cycle at the lovely spot at the top of Syracuse is complete. I took my iPhone 6 to Thornden Park as warm weather returned to my city here in upstate New York late this week, as promised. I wanted to capture the stirring of nature’s soul in the spot where roses will soon…

The locked gate and the damage done

A walk with my dear wife Karen and our cherished rescue mutt Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle through our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood Norwood Park yielded an obstruction on a path that usually stood free for all. Karen has come across the locked gate previously. And she knew why officials had closed things up,…

Nothing Is Coming Up Roses

On walk through the blocks surrounding the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood this week, I asked Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle if she would like to stray just a few houses from our usual route to see if the folks who give us a wonderful display of color every summer are…

Sally Field hits the young crowd as Doris

Sally Field is so good as Doris Miller that you don’t know whether to love, hate or feel sorry for the sixtysomething running from her home on Staten Island to the office in Brooklyn. And what makes Hello, My Name Is Doris Miller so darn interesting is that it seems perfectly natural to do all…

Snow apparent reason

I set this morning’s alarm for 5:10 a.m., to ease my way back into tomorrow’s opening shift at the store. My first stop was the kitchen, to push the button on my coffee maker, loaded with Dunkin’ last night. The view out the front window of our Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of…